PinBud blog

Archive for July, 2010

Are you content with your rating and do you have a website? Now you can display your rating on your website with the PinBud badge. The badge can be found in the Business Account > Business Info menu.

Below is a sample badge similar to the badge that you can display on your website or chosen page. Ok, ok, we understand that to have a 0.0 rating isn't something to be proud of… but this is just a sample! You've got the idea. If your rating is below, let's say… 3.0, you should avoid to display the badge and better find several happy clients and ask them to write some positive reviews for you. But if you have 5.0 ratings, why don't you show off your rating with PinBud badge ?

The source code is very lightweight: just 0.39 kb, and looks like this:

<!-- PinBud rating display starts here --> <span id="pinbudbadgeplace"></span> <script>var serverPinbud='http://www.pinbud.com/';var userid='u*s*e*r*i*d';</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.pinbud.com/getBadge.js"></script> <noscript>Visit our profile on <a href="http://www.pinbud.com/">http://www.pinbud.com/</a></noscript> <!-- PinBud rating display ends here -->

So, what are you waiting for?

• create your profile
• get positive reviews
• publish your badge!

PinBud and Facebook Connect

Do you want to use PinBud as your preferred home improvement planning website? 

Starting today, you can use your Facebook account to login to Pinbud. For now, the Facebook Connect feature lets you open a personal account and use all the features, including the mass request form and PinPiazza. In the future, we will add more interactivity, such as:

• publishing your reviews to your Facebook wall;
• publishing your assets to your Facebook wall;
• and many more.

Any suggestions are welcomed!

Business Account Setup Wizard

Are you a business owner or representative?

Now you can use the Account setup wizard, which will guide you step-by-step through the process of creating your business account . The wizard will be available for you once you have activated your account.

Stay tuned as many other interesting features will be coming soon!

Many of you have asked us what is the "own radius" feature (inside the Business account > Contact info).

Well, "own radius" is one of the biggest differences between PinBud and any other local business listing directories out there. It's so different and so PinBud specific, that once you will understand it, you will appreciate the benefits instantly.

In short, "own radius" let's you define your own service coverage area. This is good for several reasons:

• The user wants only relevant results. So, if a user who lives 10km away from your office and performs a search with the search radius fixed to 15 km, your company will be listed in their search results. But maybe you don't want to serve other people than those located in your neighbourhood (let's say 3km away from your office), so your listing will be irrelevant. We have to tell the users this. Thus, the user will be happy (he will not lose time with irrelevant requests) and you, as the  business owner, will also be happy (you will not be bother with irrelevant requests).
• Most businesses want clients from their coverage area, not only from what is pre-established through the website.

Below is a little diagram that explains the concept (click on the picture to see it in full size). Let's suppose that the user U (red point) performed a search. This search should return normally only "A" and "C" businesses. However the search will return "B" business too, because this has an own radius that is big enough in order to include user's "U" location. On the other hand, although businesses "A" and "C" are physically located in the "U"'s search radius, only "A" can serve the user. The other is too far! The search page will still list the "C" business, but it will be marked with a red line stating that "This business cannot serve you".

How to creatively use the "own radius" ?

Here are a few ideas about the creative use of PinBud's 'own radius' feature:

• Do you want more clients? Enlarge your radius and publish a discount voucher for the users coming to your business.
• Do you have enough clients and don't want to be bothered with new requests, but still wants to be part of PinBud (for online reputation purposes)? Just put a "0" as your "own radius" and people will avoid sending you a service request, but the  search engines will love your profile!

We hope that these explanations shed light on PinBud's "own radius"  feature? 

If you have any question on PinBud's features, please post your comments here?

Here's our latest video presenting how to perform a search on PinBud and why PinBud is sooo different from any other local search engine provider.

The main ideas that one should know when using PinBud:

• PinBud is not only about, "local search" (like the Yellow Pages directories). PinBud is about finding local service providers and contacting many providers to request a service quote. Gone are the days in contacting local businesses one-by-one, repeating your story every time until you find the best offer.  Just click once and contact several service providers.  Saves you time!! Saves you money!!  Saves you frustration!!
• Organize your search. Keep track of service providers' replies, discuss with them, choose the best!